ICAC questions accuracy of document produced in John Sidoti’s favour

Former NSW Liberal John Sidoti produced a document to ICAC that would back up a claim he made – but the accuracy of the memo has been thrown into question.

The accuracy of a document that John Sidoti presented to a corruption watchdog as evidence in his favour has been thrown into question.

Counsel assisting the Independent Commission Against Corruption on Thursday suggested to a Five Dock businessman who signed the statutory declaration it that it didn‘t “accurately reflect” a run-in he’d had with the NSW MP.

“Do you agree that it is somewhat unsatisfactory that your statutory declaration does not accurately reflect your interaction with Mr Sidoti?” barrister Rob Ranken asked businessman Glen Haron.

“Yes,” replied Mr Haron, who is the former vice-president of the Five Dock Chamber of Commerce.

The statutory declaration signed by Glen Haron.

Under cross-examination by Mr Sidoti’s lawyer Maurice Neil, Mr Haron said that while he agreed parts of the document were“mildly inaccurate”, the part of the document that said he met with the MP were correct.

Mr Sidoti was previously accused by the ICAC of “making up” a chance encounter with Mr Haron, a claim the MP denied.

Mr Sidoti, a former Liberal who now sits in state parliament as an independent, has denied accusations he tried to pressure councillors in his electorate to make planning decisions that would benefit him and his family.

The former sports minister also denies he breached ministerial guidelines by failing to disclose property interests in the area.

Those allegations were discussed at open hearings earlier in the year.

John Sidoti has denied claims he tried to pressure councillors to zone in ways that would benefit him. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Joel Carrett

But the commission decided to hold new hearings this week to probe the statutory declaration signed by Mr Haron.

Both Mr Haron and Mr Sidoti have said they ran into each other in Drummoyne in April and began talking about the ICAC investigation into the MP.

Mr Sidoti told the ICAC during this year’s earlier hearings that he and Mr Haron discussed a chamber of commerce meeting that the MP had initially been unable to recall while giving evidence.

He told the commission Mr Haron had told him: “Are you silly? … You organised the meeting for us.”

The claim led Mr Ranken to accuse Mr Sidoti of making up evidence.

“I'm suggesting to you, Mr Sidoti … that you have made up that evidence … of this conversation with Mr Haron … and it is false evidence,” Mr Ranken told Mr Sidoti in April.

Nearly three weeks after that exchange before the commission, on May 17, Mr Sidoti provided the investigators with the statutory declaration signed by Mr Haron.

Mr Ranken told the commission this week it was “unorthodox” to ”hold onto” such information.

Mr Sidoti was due to give evidence this week. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Joel Carrett

“It is ordinarily not appropriate for affected persons to hold onto information that there is a potential witness who they believe can assist the commission with exculpatory evidence throughout the course of a public inquiry and then take steps towards deploying that information only after the public hearing has concluded,” he said.

Mr Ranken spent Wednesday and much of Thursday quizzing Mr Haron over how the statement came to be produced.

It was revealed Mr Haron asked Mr Sidoti’s representatives to draft a statement for him to sign and that Mr Sidoti’s brother-in-law presented the final draft for Mr Haron at a Haymarket Starbucks on May 12.

Mr Ranken said on Wednesday the matter of the document should be heard in public because it could inform how the commission viewed Mr Sidoti’s credibility.

“One of the matters touched up in the statutory declaration may bear upon the commission’s assessment of Mr Sidoti’s credibility,” he said.

“In particular whether certain evidence he gave at the public hearing concerning an interaction he had with Mr Haron … was, in light of the information in the statutory declaration, false, as had been suggested to him towards the end of his evidence, or if there is a more benign explanation for that evidence.”

Mr Sidoti and his sister Lisa Anderson were scheduled to give evidence on Thursday but their appearances were pushed forward to Friday.

Originally published as ICAC questions accuracy of document produced in John Sidoti’s favour